Absolutely shocking that team like. Shows how far we've come in a short period of time. I was saying to the lads on Saturday this team now would give ANY of our teams over the last 20 years a game.
Totally, all I ever want supporting sunderland is hope. Hope that better days are here or coming, hope that we have a team/owner that can realise our potential and make us the club we should be. Back then I had no hope, no short term hope, no long term hope - nothing!! The parkinson appointment made me give up, it was the final straw with those 2 Now I have hope, not jsut for now but also the future. There's a feeling that we are on our way to be the club that we all want. That might not happen this year or next but I feel we are progressing so well both on n off the field
I think the interesting thing for me is that even if the club does all the 'right' things, all it gives us is a chance. I tend to be quite cynical in as much as I don't really believe that SAFC will ever be the giant awoken that we all used to dream about. The nature of the game is fundamentally stacked against us for a host or reasons that we can't overcome. However, we can have a chance each season if we keep our heads and continue to work to our model. And a chance at a good season with a bit of excitement along the way is probably enough for me in truth.
Hopefully he’ll have some runouts with the youth team we can have have a look at. I’m feeling quite positive about him mind. think it’s due to the way Brown and Mepham have improved us.
I just want a club that I can be proud of, I get why folk want the club to be in the PL as you want to compete against the best but I just want a team to be proud of I'd love us to win a cup in my time, would love to be at Wembley to see us win the league or FA cups
Just been looking at some of Connollys goals, whoever said he reminded them of SKP is correct, he also strikes the ball very cleanly and isnt scared to have a pop from distance, movement looks good and good pace. I hope it comes off for him and us
After our last stint in the Premier league I've lost my ambition to be in there tbh. I've really enjoyed these season in the championship so far. If we're ever going to be competitive in the top league we'll need massive investment imo.
I do agree with this, for all I love how mayenda has played sometimes I’ve been gutted when he hasn’t ran front post or moved well in the box. this seems to be one of Connolly’s best strengths. I’m sure Mayenda could pick up better movement from watching Connolly too
I disagree, but we have to get the timing right. This season is the perfect time. I believe the majority of our young stars will just about be progressing into Premier league quality players by the end of this year. Go up, we hang onto them for another year, they potentially keep us up, and we get massive fees for them the following summer (or keep them here to carry on progressing). Stay down this year, most of them will be off and the fees we can get will be limited. Fail to go up this year and I think we will have to start the whole process again and it will be another 2 or 3 years until we are ready to have another decent craxk of it, with youngsters ready-made to take the leap to the Prem the following year. The other problem is, there's no guarantee each "crop" of youngsters will be successful. We might get 2 or 3 years on and find put our younger players haven't progressed as we'd hoped, then the cycle starts again. We have been incredibly lucky with the young squad we have this season. Rigg, Jobe, Neil, Cirkin, Hume, Ballard, Mundle, and possibly a few others all look like they'll be Premier League players with another year's experience behind them. This is the best possible time to go up and have a realistic chance of staying there without needing huge investment. I doubt we will ever see another crop of youngsters like this again. This season is critical, imo.
That’s a lot of players to have got lucky with mind, as we got lucky with Jack Clarke and Stewart before them. I think there has to be a time when we consider that maybe it’s not just down to luck and rather due to having a solid philosophy, good structure, good processes and good personnel. We can then as a fanbase be more relaxed and understanding of player sales. I see your point on it potentially being a 2 or 3 year cycle but I don’t agree we’d be starting again as, if those players are no with us then we’d have banked nigh on £100m which means the base level from which we’ll be recycling the process will be much higher. I’m loathed to say it but that’s the model.
Maybe I am the eternal optimist here but in truth I think with the right management of the club and some good appointments then we can achieve what we all believe is possible. Man City have done this ( large initial investment I know) with a figure of around 2 Billion spent they built up an structure which is now self sustaining and have no real debts (how they have done it could be open to rule breaches). That points to the fact it can be achieved all very it our journey may be a bit longer but with smart people at the helm and good sponsors and investors you can grow the club(asset) to be worth a considerable amount and become successful and sustainable. It is making good staged decisions at the right times to allow us to progress.
